


Candy Floss

by Captain_Loki



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amusement Parks, Crack, Fluffy, Gen, Ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-14
Updated: 2012-08-14
Packaged: 2017-11-12 04:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/486485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Loki/pseuds/Captain_Loki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers go on a team building trip to an amusement park</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candy Floss

It was about a year after the whole ‘New York Debacle’ which is what Tony likes to refer to it as, even as everybody sort of side eyes it, except Clint who gives him that sort of death glare he’s perfected after years in Natasha’s company, and Bruce who mostly just sort of smirks because Tony has this way of making things less horrible than they are and he has kind of grown to appreciate that.

It’s supposed to be this team building exercise, which _everyone_ thinks is absolutely ridiculous. Especially since it forces Thor and Loki into Midgardian civilian clothes and Loki just somehow looks more terrifying in a soft cotton graphic t-shirt and a pair of denim jeans and sneakers than he does in his usual Asgardian get up.

Besides that, no one is quite sure Loki isn’t about to turn tail and try to have a round two at the whole subjugation thing, even if he did change his mind half-way through the first time and start rooting for the other team…”it’s _Loki_ , man” is Clint’s response every time they’re forced into the same room.

“I have apologized,” Loki tries, but Clint just stares hard at him, and Natasha…well everyone is terrified of Natasha so no one really blames Loki for giving her a wide berth.

“It’s the biggest theme park in the country,” Coulson points out at the front gates as the Avengers queue up. People are staring at the group, and no one is quite sure if it’s because they’ve been recognized or because they’re the oddest assortment of characters parading into the amusement park, like overgrown children being led in by an intimidating one-eyed black man with a disapproving look on his features.

“We have festivals much like this one on Asgard, but they are much bigger, and—ooh that smells good, what is that?” Thor starts, distracted by a kiosk selling hotdogs, Loki nearly strains himself with the force of his eye roll. Thor and Clint dodge out of the group and begin ordering enough frankfurters to feed the entirety of them. Natasha walks over to join Clint, a hand perched absently on his forearm. He pretends not to notice but there’s a faint blush on the tips of his ears which she catches with a small smirk as he orders one extra—ketchup only.

“Alright, let’s do this. Where’s the first rollercoaster,” Tony says, clapping his hands together, Steve attempts to hand him a map of the park but Tony lets it fall to the ground with a look of stunned disbelief on his face. Bruce huffs out a laugh as Steve scowls and stoops to pick it up. “Don’t. Hand. Me. Things.” Tony says with mock severity.

“I’m not going on any rollercoasters, Tony,” Steve tries to tell him, and Tony just smiles like isn’t that cute and Bruce gestures toward the left vaguely.

“I think it’s that way,” he tries. Steve shoots him a betrayed sort of look but Tony looks pleased and grabs Steve’s hand pulling him off in that direction, he reluctantly allows himself to be dragged away.

“This is supposed to be a team thing!” Fury shouts after them.

“I don’t play well with others, remember?” Tony shouts back as they disappear around a garishly painted prop house.

Loki takes the opportunity while the others are distracted to head off in the other direction before a small shock jolts up his body and he stops, turning with a look of the deepest loathing. Fury is staring at him like the disappointed owner of a dog who’s just messed on the carpet.

“What did I tell you about wandering off?” He asks, holding up the remote in his hand that is connected to the small bracelet shackled to Loki’s wrist.

“This is humiliating, I am a _God_ ,” Loki starts, the eye rolls abound and he sighs, frustrated. Bruce gives him a pointed look and Loki steps back and shrinks. Clint barks out a laugh and a flush breaks out across Loki’s pale face.

“Brother! Stay by me we will have fun! I will win you a stuffed creature like they do in those Midgardian films.” Loki’s bitch face rivals no one’s in the nine realms.

The first ride they come to the attendant tells Thor he is not allowed in with his hands stuffed full of hotdogs, but he seems a bit wary of telling him this. Thor eats half of them in an alarmingly short amount of time and shoves the last two deep into his pockets while Loki watches in embarrassment. The attendant stares at his bulging misshapen pockets…one of them leaking relish onto the cement walkway but pulls the chain and allows him through anyway.

This happens at least four more times, his hiding places getting weirder and weirder as he leaves a trail of popcorn across the spinning tea cup ride, French fries tumble from his shoes into the bumper car he shares with a disgruntled Loki crammed into the passenger side like a child, and no one wants to even know where he kept the cotton candy he’s suddenly eating on the log ride.

Bruce has never been a particularly avid fan of theme parks, even before ‘the other guy’; has an inner ear thing that makes him dizzy and a little sick on most rides anyway. He doesn’t mind taking on the parental role of watching jackets and sun glasses when the others go off. He takes up residence on quiet benches beneath the shade of the sporadic foliage and watches.

He watches his friends laughing and tugging on each other’s sleeves trying to capture attentions, he watches the friendly banter bandied back and forth, the way Loki allows Thor to tug him over to the games, disgruntled expression permanently etched into his face. Bruce loves to people watch, and he’s always been rather gifted at blending into the background.

Sometimes Coulson will sit a ride or two out and join him, casually munching on kettle corn or licking an ice cream cone. They make polite conversation that usually ends with them laughing at one or another thing Tony has done, affectionately.

“There’s a showing later, about WWII, it’s in 3D,” Phil tells him, “I’m hoping I can get the Cap to watch it with me,” he confesses and Bruce sort of smiles to himself.

“I’m sure he’d be more than grateful if you rescued him from Tony,” Bruce tells him, “I think Tony was dragging him off towards the Gatekeeper.”

“I didn’t think Steve liked roller coasters,” Phil says with a real tone of concern and Bruce laughs.

“Tony is full of lies and deceit,” he says with a grin. “I think he told him they were going to the Ferris Wheel.” And Phil excuses himself and heads off in the direction of the roller coaster while Bruce barks out a laugh at the speed in his step and the look of determination on the agent’s face.

Natasha likes to wander, and she tries most of the more thrilling sounding rides but exits a bit bored and unsatisfied. Mostly she tags along with Clint who prefers the relative calm of the boardwalk games to the actual rides, Natasha is convinced it is because he can’t seem to go more than a few minutes without cramming overly priced junk food into his mouth. He grins at her around a mouthful of funnel cake and asks if she wants to go on the haunted ride. He’s pretty bad at acting aloof about it but she pretends like she doesn’t realize it’s just a clever excuse to get her alone in a confined space in the dark and allows him to be all manly about the whole thing.

But Clint is too much of a child and he’s rambunctious and antsy like a seventh grader hyped up on caffeine and they nearly get kicked off of several of the children’s rides because he won’t sit still. When, finally, he just about topples out of the raft ride and into the dirty water below Nat decides it’s time to go back to the relative calm of the boardwalk.

There they find Thor in a heated argument with a pockmarked teenage game attendant, and Nat has to hand it to the kid for staring down a confused and disgruntled Thor.

“This hammer is insufficient for my needs,” Thor says as he holds the beaten up mallet for the strength test.

“Just hit the thing or let someone else play, dude,” the attendant sighs.

“Fine, I shall win your puny game!” Thor says confidently and he slams the hammer down on the mat and sends the ball rocketing up the pillar to smash into the bell, and as everyone in the vicinity predicted with a grimace and wince, breaks the bell in half and sends both the pieces flying off in opposite directions. Thor smiles proudly and hands the smashed mallet back to the shocked teenager.

“I believe I have won the right to choose a prize.” The boy doesn’t argue but gestures shell shocked at the row of cheap toys behind him.

“I want the largest stuffed creature you possess,” he says.

“You need…” the boy starts and Thor’s eyes narrow, “yes sure, right…the unicorn or the gorilla?” the boy asks.

“Loki which do you prefer?” Thor asks, seriously. Natasha and Clint look away to hide their laughter and Loki sighs.

“I don’t…” Loki says, irritated. Thor gives him an appraising sort of look and Loki rolls his eyes.

“Then you get the unicorn.” Thor tells him and the attendant hands the massive fluffy pink monstrosity down and hands it to the God.

“Here, I have won this for you brother, now come let us play whack-a-mole!” It’s only after Thor manages to break this game too (not through any fault of Loki’s who most certainly did not use his magic to keep the mechanical creatures alluding his brother’s attempts at smashing) does Loki manage to finally sneak away from the watchful eyes of the group.

He wanders around, unicorn tucked beneath one arm, until he stumbles upon the carousel and he waits in a line full of young girls staring jealously at his toy, which he taunts them with smugly, before choosing a dark horse with green eyes and a saddle of gold, it speaks to him for some reason and he rides, around and around and around while cheerful music blares through on the speakers at the center console.

Loki finds it strangely calming and he rides it for the rest of the afternoon, while the others watch in fascination and Fury stares hard and calculating like he’s trying very hard to deduce something and Thor just looks a bit embarrassed by the whole thing, but figures he’s not trying to maim or kill anyone so he just goes with it.

By the end of the evening, as the sun is starting to sink into the horizon, and the sky turns a fiery red, everyone is exhausted. Steve has thrown up his cotton candy twice, Tony doesn’t look particularly guilty about it (quite the contrary), Clint has a look of smug satisfaction on his face when Natasha doesn’t flip him over her shoulder when he pulls the classic ‘yawn and stretch move’ to drape his arm around her, Thor’s pockets are filled once more with candy, and Loki has bequeathed his stuffed unicorn to a dark haired three year old with jewel bright eyes who tells him that she thinks his horse is beautiful.

Bruce trails behind the group, watching as they slowly trickle through the turnstile and out into the parking lot, and he smirks, quiet and reserved, as he watches his family piling into the S.H.I.E.L.D van.

And Fury still wants to know what the hell is up with Loki and that God damn merry-go-round.

**Author's Note:**

> Was inspired by a tumblr headcanon


End file.
